E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Acquires 34,906 Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB increased its stake in shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 56.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 97,287 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 34,906 shares during the period. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB owned 0.07% of Ciena worth $5,992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIEN. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Ciena in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Ciena by 424.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ciena during the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Ciena during the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Canton Hathaway LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Ciena Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $66.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.51, a P/E/G ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.94. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $39.94 and a 12-month high of $69.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $59.96 and a 200-day moving average of $52.16. The company has a quick ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 4.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $942.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $928.31 million. Ciena had a return on equity of 5.98% and a net margin of 3.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ciena news, SVP Jason Phipps sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.49, for a total value of $135,278.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 91,149 shares in the company, valued at $5,604,752.01. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.43, for a total value of $236,005.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,997 shares in the company, valued at $13,485,797.71. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,200 shares of company stock worth $568,123. Corporate insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CIEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. BNP Paribas cut shares of Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ciena from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Ciena from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ciena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.08.

Ciena Profile

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company’s Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.